The Invisible Shortwave Transmissions Of London's Secret Diplomatic World
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
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Died playing drink along with Lewis... "Embassy/Embassies"
Shut up divvy
Oi wheres my introduction fee ! 😅
How’s your ring road ?
RingroadManchester
Someone’s been on the E10…. 😂
Hi Lewis, I have worked in the Pakistan Embassy (late 80's) or high commission. It is not that sophisticated in that place. Just FSK with a Siemens T1000 teleprinter. You can listen all you like it is heavily encrypted. Other Embassies had more sophisticated equipment like the US embassy. Frequency hopping I expect. Encryption is how they do it. It was just an ordinary house inside. The US embassy was much more secure and their room, in the basement, had many teleprinters going all the time.
Bulgarian here. We have that same Yagi at our embassy in Kiev, Ukraine and a whole bunch of other places.
I would absolutely keep those antennas for backup. We are too reliant on modern communication technologies like cellular and internet. I've lost both where I live. EDIT: Lost both at the same time to be clear. I have been down to radio only.
Great to hear from you as always James!
@@RingwayManchester Excellent video!
I must agree. When the poop hits the fan, old-fashioned shortwave will be the only way to communicate long distances. The host governments can shut down the Internet, but they can’t shut down even the simplest transceiver. M7ENO
This is sort of why I guess the BBC started broadcasting Shortwave to Ukraine last year. Its a lot harder to disrupt compared to them. Even from an IT perspective having it as a backup makes sense and all you'd need to do is test the equipment still works from time to time.
Every time Diplomats are mentioned. It always reminds me of the scene in Lethal Weapon 2.
"Diplomatic Immunity" - BANG
Revoked.
The magnetic loop at 9:20 ... I recall doing a lot of field trials of a device like this in the early 1980s in a numbers station scenario. We had an array of them in a field in south Wales
Fantastic stuff. Really interesting to see how the design of antennas in use has changed over time. Modern verticals and loops are doing just as good (or better) a job as the old log periodic arrays, but are much more subtle in appearance. Bit of a shame, as I like the "spooky" look of the older kit.
Heh, whereas my instinctive reaction when I see those old LP antennae in the pics in this video isn't to find them spooky or sinister, it's to think of VHF TV from when I was little. In my hometown, everybody's house had an antenna that looked very much like that (but smaller) back in the day. It was a mark of distinction in my elementary-school days when your parents took theirs down--it meant you got cable. :)
Back in the late 80s I was an IT contractor at an MOD RAF location in Holborn. Every Monday morning I had to leave the equipment room whilst the MOD staff 'reset the cryptos' with the new codes. #goodolddays
I don't know about anyone else but the more this video went on the more fascinated I am to know exactly what sort of things are transmitted on them. I guess we'll never truly know.
I find it interesting to spot the high speed surveillance cameras used in london, if you know what to look for they can be seen as certainly some of the older ones are larger to hold higher quality lens. the newer ones are now a lot smaller and almost impossible to detect.
The huge log periodic atennnas are dissappearing. One classic large one was in the west of Ottawa, Ontario, on a Canadian forces base. Even 30 years ago, it rarely moved or changed direction.
Meanwhile in downtown Ottawa, several embassies had a variety of HF antennas and you could hear some of them regularly using data transmissions.
In Australia, there was a huge monster near Darwin that for unknown reasons was pulled down.
As was all the equipment used for Radio Australia , the frequencies were then taken over by "china".
Predictable stupidity.
Satelites, expensive and sensitive.
Only Starlink is truly operationaly proven in war use.
@@ljubomirculibrk4097 All satellites are very prone to jamming, usually by hijacking transponders with a bigger signal than that of the intended user. I saw this happen in the Caribbean and Latin America when I was a technical support engineer with a large maritime satellite company.
I love the music used in this video!
Yes, certainly recognised the antenna behind the Dorchester. Used to drive down that street all the time for years. They're certainly disappearing fast throughout the West End..
One reason I love this channel is that you show me thungs that I didn't know were antenna, like the Chech dipole cage. Some of the ones in other videos look more like sculpture than something functional, those are my favorite. Thank you for teaching me! 9:38 -I like the way that one looks too, like jewelry. Someone should make antenna jewelry if they haven't already, I can think of a few ways to do it but I don't have the skills, I'm talking fine jewelry, that's what I'd like to do.
Yet another brilliant informative video, you not only inform but entertain. If only the mainstream could be as addictive!! I also love the spooky music😂
7:50 just beautiful look at that thing there.. gotta love shortwave antennas!
What a beautiful and diverse set of antennas
I love the antena in the conet project cover. It was a sad day when i saw it gone in google maps. The conet project is what got me into swl.
Hope you liked the transition shot
Love your show please keep going just amazing thanks again 🍻👍
I would think the noise generated from ADSL, PLT and switch mode electronics makes HF radio unusable. Even here in Walton on the Naze in Essex HF radio is noisy.
the last bit reminded me of when i took an innocent tourist photo in Seoul, soon had staff rushing out wanting my attention !
I live in Oslo Lewis, and I remember from the 80's driving in a spesific place in Oslo, where all the ambassedes where, I saw big antennas everyhvere down there. 12 elements beems on very many places, and they where 2 or 3 band beems, with a lot of directores! Thank's again for a very informative video Lewis! The best from LB1NH 🙂
Cool! Where is Oslo Lewis?
Paul Beaumont of ENIGMA 2000 has taken many photos of London's antenna farms at embassies.
I find it interesting to spot the high speed surveillance cameras used in london, if you know what to look for they can be seen as certainly some of the older ones are larger to hold higher quality lens. the newer ones are now a lot smaller and almost impossible to detect.
At 4:06, you are looking at a T2FD antenna. Terminated, tilted folded dipole, a broadband wire antenna.
Thanks Lewis - really found this interesting. Keep up the great work.
I think today that embassies have switched to satellite uplink and downlinks on their secret communication. Its easier than short-wave communication in most cases (not always). It doesn't requires that large of a satellite dish. A uplink dish with the size of 50cm to 120cm is good enough in most of Europe (as an example). Maybe not in Iceland and most northern part of Europe, that would require 120cm in both uplink and downlink communication.
Massive satcom units above the UK Consul, Main St Georgetown Guyana as well as the US Embassy near the Everest Cricket Ground. The Chinese Embassy has a veritable antenna farm as well as satcom stuff; the Russian Embassy a selections of antennas as usual.
Nope they haven't. They need reliability and off grid independence unbeholden to the host government. This made for actual use, not for the entertainment of goldfish attention span overindulgent TikTok screen addicted infants such as yourself. Any diplomatic corridor and you'll see tons of these, unlike this view baiting non-content channel Priyom has actually extensively documented these.
North Korea's is my favorite.
+1 for DIY synth intro
Fascinating video, Lewis! It's so great that you were able to provide so many photos of the various aerials. It's never dawned on me that cameras aren't allowed in Embassy Row, but of course that would be true. Even with some of your own photos taken from a distance, I couldn't help but wonder whether you were 'noticed' at any point. Cheers!
So you can't take a picture of a building that you can walk past in broad view? Sometimes I forget that not all places are open society.
@@ohioplayer-bl9em yep, in most countries, there is a sign post declaring a camera-free zone around embassies and military installations.
special permission required and rarely granted.
[im ex-gov contractor abroad]
Amazing piece of history.
Impressive how you gather all this information. Thank you for another good video.
I want to travel to London as tourist soon and bring a scanner with me. Can you please tell me if it is still allowed to use scanners in GB after brexit ?
Nice video, as always!
I imagine taking photos of the antennas on top of government buildings is an excellent way to attract some attention :D
Brilliant offering Lewis ... thanks.
Pedant note , you said "City of London" , most (not all) you show are in City of Westminster ( a few spill into Camden and other odd boroughs). Actually an analysis of the City of London Police . a law somewhat to themselves , might be interesting dig for comms and their specialism in fraud work.
My friend works in the "City of London" it's just one square mile area.
Good one for a pub quiz 😉.
Has some interesting history and traditions as well
Great stuff and info, Big Thumbs up
Thanks for another great video! Cheers from Michigan!!
Another gem from you!
Another great video from Ringway! I would love to find out what song you are using during the lead in. I've heard it in some of your other videos and always loved it. Cheers mate!
Glimpsing Infinity by Asher Fulero.
Fantastic video cheers 👍👍
Love the videos!
Love that transition at the start
Thanks!
Another very interesting video 👍🏾
I was in London in the 1970s. Went by the Admiralty. There were a lot of HF antennas on the roof. Any idea about them?
th-cam.com/video/vAHYl1010R4/w-d-xo.html
nice 1 lewis enjoyed this
Intriguing stuff, Ringway. As embassies are immune from prosecution, do they sometimes infringe non-authorised frequencies?
As ever, all the best.
Not sure if that'd make much sense for them. If they use the ham bands then they risk too many people listening in (even though the one-time-pad ciphers are inherently secure) or just disrupting transmissions. If they use commercial bands, then they could almost be certain to have trouble with too many too powerful TV and radio transmitters.
Plus at different times of day you get different propagation conditions. So I'd assume they use whatever freq works best, out of a few fixed ones that they know their ministries etc. monitor for traffic permanently.
I think the allocation of MOST frequencies is by International Agreement , no agreement.
Well, if they are trying to stay "diplomatic", they would likely avoid being rude and causing interference.
I love the synthwave music you use.
Isnt it funny how the Czech Embassy looks like a building from '70s Communist Czechoslovakia plonked down in London?
I was getting a “shine on you crazy diamond” (Pink Floyd) vibe with that soundtrack. Nice!
Subbed to another amazing random rec of super specific hobbies to get enthralled with, thanks! If you have a bare bones beginner guide to antenna design, let me know! I will look through your channel in the meantime 😁 I am a Mechanical Engineer and I love learning more about EE stuff.
Hi Lewis, great video! I noticed a while back that several embassies of the DPRK had HF Yagi's mounted on their roofs. 73
There was a story in the news a few weeks ago about how russian embassies across Europe are full of some "surveillance antennas" hanging on every corner, and how the one in Brussels has more of the than any other embassy. They actually looked more like small cameras to me, and indeed, they were even smaller than that mag loop antenna on former Algerian embassy building you showed... But are they really antennas? What are they really, after all? I know you can expect anything from russian regime as it is at present, but, Lewis, are you perhaps able to explain them? 😅
thanks for the video! i’d love to see footage of the czech antenna moving in the breeze-does it ever get twisty?
Thanks
My, what a big zoom you have, Lewis.
😘
Interesting video, amazing how many antennas are in London...2E0BGB..
This stuff is fascinating. TH-camr Beau of the Fifth Column has just put up a video talking about US concerns of a Chinese station being installed in Cuba.
If I knew you were going to be doing a video about embassies I'd have offered my photo with the Kyiv Road sign on one side of the street and the Russian Embassy on the other that I took in London a couple weeks ago. All joking aside that was quite interesting.
Great video mate!What is the musik?Love it...
Nice footage with real mentioned antennas :) I was expecting introduction written that the antennas are real examples of the mentioned :). How come in gb There is a Public Road without cameras allowed? Camera on a bike, in a car, maybe only telescopic cameras are not allowed? Aiming at
Recognized that first antenna in Mayfair from The Conet Project if I'm not mistaken.
That’s the one!
I wonder how they manage with encrypted digital modes, against the QRM levels in London? 🤔
MM0IMC, surprisingly low around Kensington and KPG. About S4-5 against my S6 - 8 in South London. Freq dependent of course.
Nice one Lewis. Thank you. Question whilst I have floor:
The Mag Loop, with the structure at the top - is that a loading coil? And the "baby" loop within the circumference?
Hey Steve the thing at the top is the vacuum capacitor for tuning. The small loop at the bottom is the coupling loop.
Every time I see local traffic in the UK (but most usually London), I wonder how anyone navigates that plate of spaghetti... By the same token, I expect you lot wonder how we in the States don't die of grid-based boredom...
Are these transmitting loop antennas? I missed the small coupling loop or anyway another coupling method at the other hand of a capacitor (which i suspect might be fixed and not variable).
15:24 …aaaand I expected you, sir, to burst into song! “Too Much Information” ( Sting & the boys)… 🚨
So glad you didn't make the claim that embassies are regarded as tiny little pieces of sovereign states they serve--they are not. The host country, by convention agree not to enter embassies operating in their country. They can, at any time enter an embassy if they believe somebody is in imminent danger or to rescue people in an emergency without needing permission, a la the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980. edit: yes, he did actually make that claim. No, embassies are NOT subject to the laws of the country whose embassies they stand, they are subject to the host laws. they are NOT sovereign.
Right now, there is a discussion going on, about the Russian embassy in Brussels, that roof is loaded with 10 or more dishes, which disturbs our government. But because they cannot enter a sovereign embassy, to inspect those arrays on top, but our state security is monitoring them closely. Especially with the war in Ukraine going on.
Do they need to have UK licenses for the used frequencies or would the embassy local laws apply, as the territory is owned by the country from which the embassy is?
Can any UK locals explain to me what the red LED fixtures are on the fencing at the start (16:18).
Obviously it's not radio related, but I've never seen anything similar down under and it grabbed my attention.
Have you done a review of the MI6 (?) Vauxhall Cross building's arrays of radio stuff ?
Waste of time, all taken down now.
It would be interesting to note the direction the antennas are facing. I suppose usually they're pointed at their home country, but maybe some of them relay off embassies in other countries if their home country is too far around the world to get a direct beam there. You can bounce off the ionosphere but things like that only work at night, and satellites have taken over that job since the earlier days before. You'd only need a compass and a map to figure out what it pointing where, you can do it just by looking from the street to enough accuracy for a TH-cam video.
Oooh James Bondy stuff 😮
I bet Offcom never monitored these transmissions like they so closely did / do our pirate music stations... Somewhat ironic.
Have you considered they might just be trying to improve their TV reception?
The HF antenna on the pakistan embassy is a "Teleranya" or "Spiderweb" antenna.
This is one of those rare videos where talking about VPNs totally make sense. I wonder if they're also using tor. Regardless, relying on ISPs alone to keep the comm pipes open could be problematic even if it has way more bandwidth.
Also thank you for the very crucial bit at 15:05 _wink wink_
Tor was made by one alfabet agency to luer pray in the net, VPN is trivia...
Be avare, there is no privacy.
I think its safe to say no embassy uses the internet. They would use closed networks like those used by SWIFT, INTERPOL. EUROCONTROL, Credit Card companies etc. Point to point data links or satellite circuits.
@@greenpedal370 Ofcourse they use the internet but they encrypt their traffic, whether it's a VPN tunnel or a point to point fiber connection with their country. It doesn''t really matter, you can still tap any connection, same with radio or satellite traffic. It all comes down to the encryption.
@@csparty11 Never!
Some of the "decommissioned" under sea cables are labelled as "diplomatic use"
now its all just whatsapp groups 😂 "end to end security" air quotes
Unsure if been Belgrade Lewis. Based here years now, I went in the UK one during pandemic, as re-entry rules changed. Very weird, more secure than airport and it does feel like you've left Serbia well behind, with passport control etc. When NATO hit Belgrade, and the Chinese Embassy (they said by mistake 🤔), check out the damage that still prevails and the UK and old USA embassies are a literal stones throw, I was shocked how close to impact site.
Is this where pink floyd lives? Asking for a friend😂
How is SW regulated? Which bands are free to use except 468 or 868 in GB?
The International Telecommunications Union regulates frequencies. Enforcement, or lack of it is carried out by national authorities like Ofcom in the UK or the FCC in the USA.
There are no free frequencies available in the HF band.
You have 27MHz which is in the shortwave range, but only just. The power limit is 4w FM or SSB, 1w AM in most countries.
With a proper directional (or at least dipole) antenna and around the sunspot maximum, you have a good chance on going long distances. I'm pretty sure i heard americans and people from the mediterranean around the 2006ish sunspot maximum, listening in the Netherlands. If you don't have a license, it's a nice entry into learning how to deal with the quirks of the shortwave spectrum. I do recommend getting a transceiver that does AM, FM and SSB because the most popular mode really varies between countries with SSB being by far the most DX usable. SSB transceivers can also do digital text-only modes which can radically extend your range, though i don't know if modes like PSK31 and JT8 are done on 27mhz.
In the sunspot minima, you only have local (meaning about 50km) communications.
There are also a handful of license free snippets but those are meant for RFID data like contactless payment.
Ah I forgot about CB
15:19 oi m8 got your camera loicense? Seriously though that's kinda messed up.
i would love to know how the Saudi Embassy comms was intercepted in Istanbul 2018 when 'that incident' occured..
i was there when news broke and the intel was leaking in real-time.
Wow... Cameras are not allowed on Embassy Row in London. Is that a public street ? I would love to see them ban photography on Embassy Row in Washington DC or the similar area of New York City. I have photographed both areas in the past. If I was Lewis, I would be sniffing the entire frequency range with a SDR also to see if anything interesting.
Depends which bit, I think some of the roads embassies are on are within the historic boundaries of royal parks and thus bound by the bylaws and similar related to them
They might be 'banned; but as nothing more that Security Guards they have no real powers to stop and seize. I have taken many images down there, even going round the back of RUS Chancelry bldg where there are even more antennas. I was told to stop photographing once and just carried on. Seeing police nearby I stopped and one asked me if I'd been told off. No problem. Try taking a pic of the Israeli Embassy at the other end of KPG and there are problems.
so so so many public roadways ban photography in america-most notably major bridges. i walked the rfk bridge the last time i was in new york, and it was plastered with signs banning photography as well as security cameras for monitoring and enforcement
@@winterwatson6811 Huh... must be a rather new thing....perhaps since 9-11. Thanks for the reply.
Those Ruusians, eh?
OK so cameras aren't allowed on Embassy Row well then how about going down the street so you're out of the region and then setting up a camera with a telephoto lens! It's a camera is not on Embassy row and well it technically breaks the rule it technically isn't ruled against either? Oh yes security through obscurity.
Encrypting email has been available for a long time.
am I bothered?
Impossible to read the orange writing on screen with a phone lewis, try enlarging it a touch next time 😊
3:05 caged dipole, where is the other half?
Wrong time tag? 13:15 is a yagi on Sudanese rooftop.
The Caged dipole you refer to is/was atop the Czech embassy. It is one half of a VGDSh and totally viable as shown. There were other VGDSh stuff there prior to this imagery.
@@g7vak I've never heard of them, Google doesn't really give any results when looking for a vgdsh. What does it stand for, what other names do they have? Thank you for your feedback.
@@NatesRandomVideo thanks edited now, fat fingers 😅
@ifell3 Standard Russian design. Used across Iron Curtain countries such as East Germany and other Soviet satellite states. VGDSh is just the design. I've seen explanatory doc but for all intent and purpose it is just a caged dipole.
We done we radio amateur radio wish able put up aerials with no need for planning permission
"Oh your interested in X subject, here's a radio element you may have never thought about involving subject X, and Y for good measure. It kinda relates to modern news to without directly mentioning it, but sometimes I do" -Every video from this channel
Secrets, Just no. STOP
Hardly secret !
@@jonathaneastwood2927 It was, now everyone knows.
@RingwayManchester >>> 👍👍